Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s longtime chief of staff Ian Todd is retiring, marking the latest of several recent departures of senior staffers in his office. In a note sent to Conservative caucus members and Poilievre’s office, Todd said he would retire from his position at the end of this Parliamentary session. The House of Commons spring session is scheduled to...
It was a relatively quiet week on the polling front, but the new numbers that were published have pushed the Liberals to their highest point in The Writ’s Vote and Seat Projection. The Liberals are projected to be leading in 227 ridings across the country, a gain of three since last week and they highest the party has been in...
A panel appointed by the Newfoundland and Labrador government says a proposed energy deal with Hydro-Quebec is not in the province's best interests. In a report expected to be released Tuesday, the three-person panel outlines several concerns with the non-binding framework agreement to share power from Labrador, which was signed by the provinces' hydroelectric utilities in 2024. In particular, the...
Prime Minister Mark Carney seems unshaken by the United States' abrupt decision to pause a joint defence board and put its future under review. Speaking at a news conference in Quebec today, Carney says the long-standing Permanent Joint Board on Defense has a long "heritage" but cautions that he wouldn't "overplay" the significance of the U.S. move. The prime minister...
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens says he doesn’t want Canada to accept a bad trade deal just to open the Gordie Howe International Bridge. The new bridge is slated to open in “spring 2026,” according to bridge officials. U.S. President Donald Trump and high-ranking Canadian politicians have indicated trade renegotiations are what’s keeping the bridge closed. “We’ve fulfilled our end of...
The latest Capital Tracker from the Ottawa Compass and Liaison Strategies shows Mayor Mark Sutcliffe leading among decided and leaning voters in an early Ottawa mayoral ballot, while Tim Tierney would enter the race in double digits. Among decided and leaning voters, with Tierney included on the ballot, Sutcliffe leads with 37%, followed by Jeff Leiper at 32%, Alex Lawson...
Economic concerns continue to dominate, with jobs and inflation at the forefront. Strained relations with the United States remain closely tied to this uncertainty. The Liberals maintain their lead over the Conservatives, with Mark Carney remaining as the preferred choice for prime minister, suggesting a largely stable political landscape shaped by persistent economic pressures.
This weekend, the U.S. paused its participation in an organization most Canadians have likely never heard of: the Permanent Joint Board on Defence. It was established in 1940, following U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s pledge that the U.S. would defend Canada if it were attacked, and Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King’s promise that “enemy forces should not be able...
Ottawa’s second crack at passing its big lawful access bill is going much worse than its first one did. Assailed by privacy advocates, Big Tech and bigwig Republicans in the United States, the Carney government faces a tough slog in trying to modernize the legal tools cops and spies use to do their jobs in the digital era. This is...
Prime Minister Mark Carney was on site at Quebec’s Matawinie Mine site Tuesday to break ground on a project billed as the biggest graphite mine in the G7. According to Carney, the mine is expected to eventually pump nearly $2 billion into the economy and add 1,000 jobs, with annual production expected to hit more than 106,000 tonnes of natural...
The Snowbirds are entering a final chapter. After more than five decades in the skies, the federal government has confirmed to CTV News that the Canadian Forces’ iconic aerobatic team will fly its last season with the aircraft that made it famous. Defence Minister David McGuinty will announce Tuesday at Canadian Forces Base Moose Jaw that Canada will retire and...
Canada’s selection as home to the new Defence, Security and Resilience Bank affirms our country’s credibility with its allies and its leadership at a time when defence, security and economic resilience is critical. Nova Scotia was one of the first to raise our hand in support of Canada’s bid.
The moment when Canada moved from Britain’s orbit into America’s can be dated precisely to Aug. 17, 1940. That was the day when Canadian prime minister William Mackenzie King and U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Ogdensburg Agreement that defined the principle of the joint defence of North America
The night before the 1968 federal election, prime minister Pierre Trudeau attended the annual St. Jean Baptiste Parade in Montreal. A mob of enraged Quebec separatists began hurling bottles and rocks at him. As most of the other dignitaries scurried for cover, security tried to hustle the PM off to safety. Mr. Trudeau brushed them off, shot the rioters a...
National security — an elastic legal concept — has become associated with international trade thanks to Donald Trump, who has been using it as an excuse to apply wide-ranging tariffs under his administration’s trade policy. While largely a subsidiary trade issue for decades, national security is now top-tier in global trade relations at several levels. First, there is the scope...
I’M TRYING TO FIGURE out what Prime Minister Mark Carney thought he was doing at this year’s Global Progress Action Summit. The Global Progress Action Summit is an annual gathering of Canadian Liberals, United Kingdom Labour figures, United States Democrats, and assorted compatible figures from other countries. Carney spoke at this year’s summit on Saturday in Toronto, which took place...
Everything should be adjusted for inflation and population growth. This is something I always think of when looking at comparative stats. When I saw a few days ago that Canadian personal insolvencies had hit a level we hadn’t seen since 2009—the era of the global financial crisis and the so-called Great Recession—I immediately thought about this. And it turns out...
We live in an age of uncertainty and disorder. Prime Minister Mark Carney has called this a hinge moment. Long-term relationships have been ruptured. For policymakers, however, unpredictability is the norm. The current risks are long-term and complex (wars, international relations, climate, inequality, technology) but they also have significant short-term impacts (confidence, affordability, employment).
A Pollara poll from April had support for Alberta separatism at 27 per cent, the highest level recorded in five years of tracking. A recent CBC News poll showed that 57 per cent of UCP members would vote for Alberta to separate from Canada. This means Smith is dependent on separatists to remain leader.
Alberta’s separatist sentiment has borrowed heavily on what you might call Quebec envy. But make no mistake, the direction it is taking now veers far from the well-worn Quebec separatist path. Though Alberta’s discontent in the federation goes back a long way, it was only in the past decade or so that it sharpened into a focus on getting Alberta...
The idea that Canada might one day join the European Union is having a moment. It’s not hard to see why. Canadians are looking for deeper ties with stable, liberal democracies which share our values and have strong institutions. EU membership for a North American country is fanciful but it’s just not in the cards. What we can do is...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is quietly bringing-in sweeping reforms to the pesticides law, making it more difficult for the government to ensure that the air you breathe, the water you drink and the food you eat is safe from dangerous toxins. Buried in two omnibus financial bills are provisions that overhaul the Pest Control Products Act. They change the health...
What are voters to make of a political party that can’t properly manage a riding nomination? The Ontario Liberals are the latest to pose that question implicitly — and not for the first time — to the electorate. Nate Erskine-Smith, a departing federal Liberal MP and presumed candidate for the provincial party’s leadership, alleges all manner of skulduggery in the...
Prime minister says he hopes Albertans see a 'Canada that works.' On Friday morning in Calgary, Mark Carney and Danielle Smith shook hands, then signed and posed with official copies of an "implementation agreement for the Canada-Alberta memorandum of understanding," an eight-page document bound up in profound questions of climate change, resource development, economic sovereignty and national unity. "Today is...
Premier Danielle Smith is confident. On the pipeline deal with Mark Carney she believes she speaks for most Albertans
Smith may have set up this province for decades of economic gains
The “plan” to approve a pipeline, which was detailed by the federal and Alberta governments on Friday, is a perfect example, not of federal-provincial co-operation, but of why Canada can’t build infrastructure. Rather than being subject to market demand, the decision to build or not to build is being driven entirely by politics.
Alberta and Ottawa just did something nobody expected, and it actually matters. For years, the story of Canadian climate policy has been a familiar one: Ottawa sets ambitious targets, Alberta pushes back, and the country lurches forward with neither the unity nor the urgency the moment demands. Today, that story finally has a new chapter.
The Political Pulse panel breaks down Prime Minister Mark Carney’s energy agreement with Alberta – and the political compromises that come with it.
Good news from the West: the prospect of a referendum on independence for Alberta this fall continues to collapse under the weight of its own absurdities and contradictions.
Two questions burn at the top of Canada’s economic agenda: how to accelerate growth, and how to mobilize the capital to fund it. Increasingly, the answer to both hinges on something we have long taken for granted: electricity. More and more, Canada’s economic agenda is pinned to projects that require abundant, cheap and low-carbon electricity. Critical minerals mining and processing...
In January, Prime Minister Carney gave a speech in Davos that went viral with its stark honesty about a rupture in the world order. From the campaign trail to his first year in office, Carney has consistently described the challenges Canadians face as a hinge moment for the country, a turning point requiring dramatic change. And that was before the...
The recorded history of Canada stretches back more than 500 years; the unrecorded history, many thousands. It is one of the world’s oldest continuously existing democracies, with a Constitution whose principal features – monarchical, federal, parliamentary, with an independent judiciary and (ahem) an unelected Senate – have remained unchanged since 1867.
For the last torrid year in Alberta politics, so much seemed to be building toward a separation referendum this fall. Premier Danielle Smith eased the rules repeatedly for a pro-separatist petition to succeed. Right before a court first ruled against petitioners in December because of constitutional issues, her government rewrote a law to make that moot. She scheduled a series...
In the United States, the life expectancy is 78.4 years. In Canada, it’s 82.2. That would be a good statistic to insert into a response to America’s Canada-trashers, like Ambassador Pete Hoekstra or Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. A line like: “Dear Americans, if you want to live several years longer, move to Canada.” It’s a telling statistic. In the debate...
Civil liberties groups, legal experts and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce have been sounding the alarm for months on the privacy and cybersecurity issues contained in the Carney government’s Lawful Access Act, or Bill C-22. In a not-so-surprising twist, American lawmakers have now also added their voice to those warning about the bill.
Canada's annual inflation rate rose to 2.8 per cent in April, Statistics Canada said on Tuesday, in large part due to soaring prices at the pump. Energy prices overall rose a whopping 19.2 per cent year-over-year in April, following a 3.9 per cent increase the month before. Statistics Canada said the cost of gasoline specifically rose even quicker, and was...
Elbridge Colby’s post casts shade on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s growing spotlight, minimizes Canada’s defence spending and targets its partnerships.
Less than a week after winning last year’s election and just days before he was set to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Mark Carney was looking for art to hang on his office walls. Staff who arrived at the National Gallery of Canada that Saturday morning had been instructed to dress casually: sport coats and dress pants...
Canada's wine sector is worth more than $10 billion a year and the industry says a few tweaks -- like scrapping domestic trade barriers -- could add billions of dollars more to the national economy. A new report from Deloitte, commissioned by the Wine Growers of Canada, says the key is getting Canadians to buy at least 51 per cent...
A businessman appointed to the board of a provincial investment agency by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has said he is an accredited accountant for more than a decade despite not having those qualifications, an investigation by The Globe and Mail has found. Financial statements obtained by The Globe show that Sam Jaber, who owns multiple accounting and tax preparation businesses...
US Ambassador Pete Hoekstra says he was ‘not aware’ American-made app he previously promoted was used to help Alberta separatist group. Donald Trump’s top envoy to Canada says he was unaware a voter identification app that he previously endorsed and promoted was used by an Alberta separatist group at the centre of a major Canadian political scandal.
In our latest Spark Insights nationwide survey (3450 cases, online, May 10-14) we found Carney government approval at 67%, similar to our results in April. A majority in every part of the country indicates approval, the lowest level being 61% in Alberta, and the highest in Quebec at 73%.
Canada's defence minister is set to make an announcement today at the home base of the Canadian Forces Snowbirds team. David McGuinty's visit to 15 Wing Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan comes amid speculation about the future of the aerial acrobatic squadron. Opposition Conservative member of Parliament Fraser Tolmie raised the issue of the team's future earlier this month.
Aside from being a member of Parliament, Jamil Jivani has no official roles in Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative party. Elected to the House of Commons in a 2024 byelection, he possesses less political experience than most of his caucus colleagues.
Wassim Boughadou is wanted by the RCMP for terrorism. He insists he is “absolutely” willing to fly home from Turkey to surrender to police. But the Montreal-born 34-year-old claims he can’t because Global Affairs Canada won’t let him. “I am in a limbo,” he wrote in a text message, part of a cache of documents obtained by Global News that...
Cody Sibley was born and raised in Louisiana, but he always felt his family shared strong ties to Canada thanks to his Acadian ancestors from Nova Scotia. Sibley said that as an eighth-generation descendant of Acadians, his family's roots could be traced back to "generation zero," Agathe Doucet, who was baptized on Jan. 19, 1710, in Nova Scotia. He said...
China's embassy in Canada says a Canadian MP's visit to Taiwan crosses a "red line" at a time when Ottawa is attempting to rebuild its relationship with Beijing. Conservative MP Michael Chong is in Taiwan this week to meet with Taiwanese officials and assert Canadian sovereignty after China's ambassador to Canada warned MPs against travelling to Taiwan in an interview...
The United States has put countervailing duties on fresh mushrooms grown in Canada following a U.S. Department of Commerce investigation which the Canadian industry has called "deeply flawed." The change, posted in the federal register on Monday, will slap most fresh mushrooms with tariffs of 2.84 per cent. Two companies received separate duties: Champ's Fresh Farms Inc. was hit with...
The former residence of Canada's consul general in New York has sold for US$8.05 million after nearly two years on the market. Global Affairs Canada confirmed the sale price -- which amounts to just over C$11 million -- on Monday after receiving an offer on the five-bedroom apartment on Park Avenue in March. Global Affairs Canada said the final sale...
Canada 'failed to make credible progress' on defence spending commitments, says Pentagon official. The Trump administration is walking away from a long-running body that works on Canada-U.S. defence initiatives, claiming Canada has failed to meet its commitments on defence spending. U.S. Undersecretary of War Elbridge Colby announced Monday the Pentagon is "pausing" participation in the Permanent Joint Board on Defence...
The federal government has lost its request for an extension to implement the terms of the Nicholas ruling. In a decision released Friday, the B.C. Supreme Court rejected Ottawa’s application to delay the deadline until October, ramping up the pressure to pass Bill S-2 when the House resumes sitting next week. READ MORE: Government secures brief extension of court-imposed deadline...
Temporarily grounding Canada’s iconic Snowbirds may be required to ensure the aging planes don’t weigh on broader military operations, says a former chief of defence staff. Tom Lawson, also a former fighter pilot, offered his view ahead of Defence Minister David McGuinty’s planned Tuesday announcement on the fate of the aerobatic flying unit known for its red-and-white jets. For over...
A three-member Ontario Liberal Party arbitration committee is scheduled to meet May 20 to review Nathaniel Erskine-Smith’s appeal against the provincial Scarborough-Southwest nomination election result, according to Liberal sources. In the meantime, Ontario Liberals are pushing back. In the meantime, Ontario Liberals are pushing back. After losing the provincial party nomination contest in Scarborough-Southwest last weekend, Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith—who...
The federal Liberal government is sticking to its pledge to double the pace of home building even as headwinds buffet the construction industry. Prime Minister Mark Carney promised in his 2025 election platform to make investments that would double the pace of housing construction over the next decade to drive down the costs of rent and home ownership. Parliamentary Budget...
A Canadian MP is on route to Taiwan to assert “Canadian sovereignty” in the face of what he called is a warning from China’s ambassador to Canada against members of parliament visiting the island. Conservative MP Michael Chong will meet with Taiwanese leaders next week. China’s embassy has already condemned the trip, arguing it contravenes a “red line for China-Canada...
A Canadian MP has arrived in Taiwan to meet President Lai Ching-te in defiance of a recent warning from China’s ambassador against further trips to the self-governed island by Parliamentarians from Canada. Beijing considers the democracy of 24 million people a breakaway province despite the fact China’s governing Communist Party has never ruled the territory since it took power more...
The RCMP wants one more Black Hawk helicopter to help it patrol the Canada-U.S. border — but the federal government’s own regulations are preventing one of its suppliers from bringing another one into the country. Canada’s federal police force is currently chartering three Black Hawks and has said it wants a fourth, according to court filings and parliamentary testimony reviewed...
The prime minister’s comments about rebuilding an international order “out of Europe” hints at a bold insight and potential plan from a man who is emerging as an architect of the global reordering. No sooner were the words out of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s mouth than one French news magazine dubbed them “a breath of fresh air from Canada.” “It...
Canadian aid groups are deliberating how to respond to American policies that block U.S. aid for virtually any group in developing countries that provides abortion, science-based sexual health information or LGBTQ+ advocacy. The rollback of feminist aid has those groups calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to assemble a coalition of like-minded nations to defend sexual health programming. "People are...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she’s open to a southern route — or one that runs along the Trans Mountain Expansion Project — for a potential pipeline that would transport oil from her province to the West Coast. Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Friday they’ve reached a deal on an industrial carbon price, a critical piece of their...
A Canadian isolating in B.C. has presumptively tested positive for hantavirus after leaving the cruise ship affected by an outbreak of the Andes strain in recent weeks, B.C.'s top doctor said Saturday. Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer, said Saturday the patient started to develop mild symptoms, including fever and headache, two days ago. The individual was taken to hospital...
Bridge authority, Canadian government say opening tied to testing work. For months, Canadian officials have maintained that the long-awaited opening of the $6.4 billion Gordie Howe International Bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ont., is dependent on various testing and commissioning tasks. But fresh comments from a Canadian cabinet member as well as two top U.S. officials suggests there is a...
British Columbia Premier David Eby says the federal government is rewarding Alberta for "bad behaviour" by agreeing to push for a new bitumen pipeline to the West Coast. Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith signed an "implementation agreement" to advance a West Coast pipeline to Ottawa's major projects office by July 1. The new agreement commits both...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. government will permanently drop tax claims connected to President Donald Trump, according to a settlement document that is part of a deal to resolve Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday wouldn't rule out the possibility that people who carried out violence during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol will be considered for payouts from a new $1.776 billion fund to pay individuals who believe they were targeted politically.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday defended the Trump administration's plans to create a $1.776 billion fund that could pay allies of the Republican president who believe they were targeted politically as he faced questions from lawmakers in his congressional appearance since taking the reins of the Justice Department.
President Donald Trump said he is holding off on a planned military strike on Iran for Tuesday at the request of several allies in the Middle East because "serious negotiations" are underway. The Monday social media announcement comes a day after Trump warned Tehran the "clock is ticking" to strike a deal, his latest threat to end the ceasefire struck...
China's embassy in Canada says a Canadian MP's visit to Taiwan crosses a "red line" at a time when Ottawa is attempting to rebuild its relationship with Beijing. Conservative MP Michael Chong is in Taiwan this week to meet with Taiwanese officials and assert Canadian sovereignty after China's ambassador to Canada warned MPs against travelling to Taiwan in an interview...
A Canadian MP is on route to Taiwan to assert “Canadian sovereignty” in the face of what he called is a warning from China’s ambassador to Canada against members of parliament visiting the island. Conservative MP Michael Chong will meet with Taiwanese leaders next week. China’s embassy has already condemned the trip, arguing it contravenes a “red line for China-Canada...
A Canadian MP has arrived in Taiwan to meet President Lai Ching-te in defiance of a recent warning from China’s ambassador against further trips to the self-governed island by Parliamentarians from Canada. Beijing considers the democracy of 24 million people a breakaway province despite the fact China’s governing Communist Party has never ruled the territory since it took power more...
The prime minister’s comments about rebuilding an international order “out of Europe” hints at a bold insight and potential plan from a man who is emerging as an architect of the global reordering. No sooner were the words out of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s mouth than one French news magazine dubbed them “a breath of fresh air from Canada.” “It...
Scores of former senior Canadian diplomats are calling for Prime Minister Mark Carney to issue "robust" sanctions on Israel over deteriorating conditions in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon. In a letter sent to media outlets, the former diplomats also call on the federal government to review Canada's trade agreement with Israel and issue a notice that a strategic partnership agreement...
The resurgence of protectionism internationally and trade tensions between Canada and the United States have brought the issue of borders in international trade back to the forefront. While at one time many envisioned a future in which national borders would cease to be a significant economic factor, the current situation very much suggests otherwise.
Coal is often treated as a relic of the past – dirty, declining, and politically toxic. Yet globally, it remains indispensable, the backbone of electricity systems in Asia and the primary input for global steelmaking.
When the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into force in 1982, many warned that it would undermine the foundations of Canada’s system of parliamentary democracy and usher in a new age of judicial supremacy. For a time, those concerns appeared overstated. Canadian courts exercised a degree of restraint, and the basic contours of Westminster parliamentary governance remained intact...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
“Despite the ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and Israel which has resulted in thousands of deaths and injuries…Lebanon moved forward with the ban on antipersonnel landmines,” said the Ottawa-based group Mines Action Canada in a statement, celebrating the new addition.
Canada’s privacy laws are supposed to protect ordinary citizens from unwarranted intrusions into their personal lives. But they can also protect pedophiles. Dead pedophiles. Dead pedophiles from America.
If you want to sound wise these days, just blame the crazy state of the world on polarization. If you want to sound really wise, say that fighting polarization needs to be part of the political agenda and be sure to blame social media and Donald Trump (although not necessarily in that order) for the current chaos. Despite it being...
In the past week, there were ceasefires announced in Russia/Ukraine, Iran and Lebanon. But did that stop the fighting in any of those locations? Dr. Janice Stein from the Munk School at the University of Toronto joins us for her weekly conversation about our changing world.
Prime Minister Mark Carney wants to turn Canada into a defence powerhouse — and venture capital is racing to cash in. Host Sam Konnert talks to defence experts and industry insiders about the new military-tech gold rush, and asks: can Silicon Valley mentality fix Canada’s stagnant defence sector, or are we scaling up its worst instincts?
The growing sense about Mark Carney in Washington is that maybe he doesn’t actually want trade peace, as Tracy Moran, National Post correspondent in the U.S. capital, tells Brian. The prime minister’s “waiting game” tactic is out of runway: Talks have dried up and there’s not enough time now to head off the July 1 deadline when President Donald Trump...
Alberta premier Danielle Smith is calling a court ruling “antidemocratic” after judge struck down the petition which hoped to trigger a separatist referendum this fall. The ruling came in part because it found that the province failed to consult with First Nations whose treaty rights would be affected by a vote to separate. Still, separatist groups and the province are...
